Volga-Dnepr will no longer haul NATO equipment

Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Airlines has decided to withdraw its An-124 cargo plane from NATO’s Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS), Kommersant reports.

Antonov An-124-100 LEJ
By Netspy [GFDL or CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

The new initiative will take effect from Jan. 1, 2019. Ukraine’s Antonov Airline is the other part involved in the SALIS program and has indicated that it will stay committed.

SALIS was started back in 2005 to provide NATO with strategic airlift services using one An-124 from Volga-Dnepr and Antonov airlines.